In this July 5, 2013 photograph released by the Teach for America Delta Institute, TFA corps member Jazmine Moore works one-on-one with a 5th grade student on edges, vertices, and faces of 3-dimensional objects at Pearman Elementary School, in Cleveland, Miss. This fall, about 200 members of the program will step to the front of a Mississippi classroom for the first time as a teacher. Another 200 or so will start the second-year of their two year commitment to the stateís students.(Photo: Euhbin Song, AP)

Story Highlights

Teach For America is a highly selective nonprofit group that places college grads in underserved schools

Critics say study was too narrow -- only examining secondary math education at the middle and high school level

The study did not indicate why TFA participants were more effective teachers than the comparison group

Teach For America participants, while inexperienced, could be more effective educators than the average teacher, according to a U.S. Department of Education study released Tuesday.

Teach For America (TFA), a highly selective nonprofit group that places college graduates in underserved school districts, has long been subject to criticism.

Critics, such as some veteran teachers and TFA alums, point out that TFA graduates -- only required to teach for two years — often go on to careers outside of education, negating the experience they gain as teachers.

Others cite the relative lack of experience of the college graduate, who receives a mere five weeks of training.

"They were more effective across the board," says Melissa Clark, a senior researcher at Mathematica. The TFA teachers, she says, made gains "equivalent to an additional 2.6 months of school for the average student nationwide."

The study examined the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years and involved 4,573 students, 45 schools and 11 districts in eight states. Students were randomly assigned to a TFA teacher or a traditional teacher for middle or high school math. End-of-year test score increases of the TFA teacher were then compared with those of the traditional teacher.

TFA teachers outperformed both experienced teachers and novice teachers, who had achieved certification through less selective means. "Even the least experienced TFA teachers were more effective than the more experienced comparison teachers," Clark says.

Julian Heilig, associate professor of educational policy and planning at the University of Texas, believes, however, that the study "is very narrow and has very little to say about TFA writ large."

He notes that the study only examined secondary math education at the middle and high school level, and the TFA teachers studied were disproportionately white.

"This study has nothing to say about teachers that they're sending out to teach ESL in elementary school, nothing to say about teachers who are teaching multiple subjects," Heilig says. "It's talking about a very small minority of TFA subjects."

Clark, however, does not take this as a criticism of the study.

"Yes it's absolutely right: our study is focused only on secondary math," Clark says. "The reason we focused on secondary math is that's the area that high poverty schools have some of the most difficulty attracting teachers."

The study also examined the The New Teacher Project Teaching Fellows program, which takes professionals who are looking for a career change and places them in a high-poverty teaching environment after a similar amount of training. Both programs have acceptance rates of less than 15%.

Students taught by Teaching Fellows had math scores comparable to those of traditional teachers, though teaching fellows were more effective than teachers from less selective routes to certification.

The study did not indicate why TFA participants were more effective teachers than the comparison group.

"From my own analysis of Teach For America, I think it's their screening and selection process — and in particular the screens for non-reportable traits such as tenacity, sense of efficacy and belief about children's potential — that makes the difference," writes Andrew Rotherman, founder of nonprofit Bellwether Education.

"They've figured out how to identify good candidates from a wide range of schools."

Teach For America, however, remains a deeply divisive organization. Heilig referred to the study as "deceptive."

"We need to hire white teachers who know nothing about math, did not major in math, don't necessarily come from a highly selective school and shouldn't stay a long time?" Heilig asked. "Is that the story they're trying to tell with this study? We cannot continue to send students a revolving door of rookie teachers."

Even if TFA teachers did only teach for two years, however, Clark says continuing to fill a position with TFA teachers would lead to higher student math achievement than filling it with traditional teachers.

"For principals or school districts considering whether to hire teachers from these programs," Clark says, "even if they plan to repeatedly hire that teacher, they can still expect higher student achievement on average from hiring these Teach For America teachers rather than hiring a teacher from some other program who might remain teaching long term."